The class system explained...

It's a Black Card benefit (free dinner at a specialty restaurant, but you typically have to choose from a limited menu). You won't get it just for booking Fantastica.

I'm not sure if you can upgrade your 12 Fantastica drink vouchers to an unlimited package. I think we'll have to wait another couple of weeks to hear exactly how this perk works.

I found out about drinks..thanks..see other thread.

I figured as much about dining. thanks!!!

Good to see long time RCCL cruisers here. Also a loyal to royal cruiser here with our first cruise on seaside booked for june 2018.

Prices for the just released 2018 schedule from RCCL made me look at other options.

Read about the yacht club experience and we were intrigued as we love the suite lounge and coastal kitchen on oasis class. What clinched it was msc matching our d+ status to their black card.

So now we have june and oct 2018 booked in yc on seaside. The price was about 60% of what rci wanted for a gs on oasis for the same time.

If it weren't for the cruises we have already booked with rccl for 2017 we would try msc this year.

Will be stalking the msc forums for info.

How about a "new to msc from rccl" forum for all us that are trying msc?

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We are also long time RCCL cruisers (since 1993). We took our first MSC cruise this past November and we've since booked 4 more cruises with them. Vibe onboard to me seemed like Celebrity ships. Little more laid back than RCL, which suits us. They still have games like Quest and trivia, etc. Bars in the evening stayed open very late and all had live entertainment. Drinks, much more reasonable than RCCL. We matched our RCCL loyalty status to MSC black card, which gave us each a complimentary specialty dining and a gift of bubbly and chocolate covered strawberries in our room and each received a MSC ball cap (sometimes they give bags). We also each received a chocolate ship model. Overall, we were very pleased with the MSC product and price points.

One nice thing(among others) is that each of you gets the Black Card gifts, not one per stateroom like on RC and Celebrity. 2 Bottles of Prosecco, 2 trays of chocolate covered strawberries, 2 dinners for 2 in the pay dining room etc.

Not always. Both myself and DH are Black Card holders and have done a number of cruises with both of us at that level. We only ever receive one bottle with one plate of choc fruits and, when we query it, we're told it's one per cabin. On only one occasion, the Cruise Consultant offered to send a second bottle & plate to the cabin. We declined the offer as DH doesn't drink Prosecco anyway and we rarely eat the strawberries/fruit.

 

I'm aware that others on the forum have a different experience

the T&Cs state the policy

ONE bottle of Prosecco and ONE plate of chocolate strawbs PER CABIN PER CRUISE

chocolate ship; logo shop gift and meal for two are ONE per MEMBER per CRUISE

you may have to expand the image by pressing "Ctrl" and "+" (plus sign) simultaneously to view the wording "Ctrl" and "

For the life of me I can't understand how matching to black makes any significant difference. There isn't one black perk that has value to me personally except the 5% and Msc offers 10% for any civil servant so we didn't even bother to match. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice gesture but Msc black perks aren't even close to same league as royal diamond. I don't see this match as anything more than a terrific marketing ploy. If someone else can explain why they would choose Msc based on a black match I'm all ears :)

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BB ... The 5% applies to all club members not just Black, MSC dumbed down the real Black card benefits in order to chase new customers, as you say a marketing ploy at the expense of those who were loyal to them.

Kinda sad really :(. We were talking with maitre'de in lemuse and he basically laughed at black status claiming that "everyone" has it now so it means little.

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Kinda sad really :(. We were talking with maitre'de in lemuse and he basically laughed at black status claiming that "everyone" has it now so it means little.

 

 

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You're so right

it used to mean 20% off all cruises (black card only) and had to be earned the hard way by actually cruising with MSC

plus a bottle of Moet and Chandon for each member

among the better perks

What do you mean by "restaurant voucher" What does this get you? We booked fantastica class. How much to upgrade to unlimited beverage? Does everyone in the cabin have to do the same?

The free dinner in a specialty restaurant is for Black Card holders. You can purchase unlimited beverage packages prior to boarding and they will also be on sale at the port on embarkation. Everyone in your cabin will need to purchase the package.

Aurea package gets the unlimited beverage package as well as other perks such as access to the thermal suite, private deck, your choice dining etc.... Yacht club gets private deck pool, thermal suite access, butler, drinks in the yacht club bar and restaurant as well as free access to the mini bar in your suite.

I didn't realize the Black Card dinner was for 2 people each time. But Splendida only has the Tex Mex place anyway, and the Voyagers Club menu that you have to pick from is extremely limited.

I didn't realize the Black Card dinner was for 2 people each time. But Splendida only has the Tex Mex place anyway, and the Voyagers Club menu that you have to pick from is extremely limited.

................... and there are no Speciality restaurants on the smaller, Lirica class, ships so there's no benefit there!

As has been said previously, the Black Card perks are less than stellar since the introduction of Voyagers Club. The only one that really matters to me is priority boarding.

Having said that, the crew do respect the level, certainly from my experience about how we're treated when they see our black cards, but then there isn't as much response to status match in Europe as there is in the US where it seems that every second black card cruiser is going to be at that level from loyalty to everywhere else bar MSC and the crew on Divina may be aware of that, judging from BermudaBound's comment " We were talking with maitre'de in lemuse and he basically laughed at black status claiming that "everyone" has it now so it means little." That was not our experience from the maitreD (the head man) on board Magnifica who went above and beyond for us on our April cruise last year on foot of us being Black Card holders.

Do you have to pick up the 12 Fantastica vouchers in the casino?

Yes, the drink vouchers are picked up in the casino. We cruised last January. They did not have the 12 Fantastica drink voucher perk then (12 per person in the cabin) but the drink coupon books that we purchased were picked up in the casino. I thought it was going to be a nightmare but it went smoothly and quickly.

Do you have to pick up the 12 Fantastica vouchers in the casino?